Reflections, Reviews and News from the worlds of Opera and Classical Music

Friday, 6 October 2017

Staatsoper Hamburg: Der Freischütz

1 October 2017

There has been something of a flurry of new Freischütz stagings in my adopted corner
of Germany over the last few years, with recent new productions in Berlin,
Dresden and Leipzig. Of these I only saw the latter, earlier this year, but I can
now add the 1999 Hamburg staging by Leipzig’s former Intendant, Peter
Konwitschny, to the list—a list whose UK section includes only concert performances.

Now something of a classic (the next performance after the
matinée I attended was the 50th in the house), Konwitschny’s staging is getting now getting its final run at this address. I’m very glad to have seen it, for it’s a
characteristically intelligent, questing and mischievous, iconoclastic affair.

Max’s insecurities are the basis of the whole plot, but are
too easily explained away as acceptable in traditional world of
thrusting horn-calls and the casual killing of innocent beasts. Not here,
though, where the production, at least as seen on this revival, exposes and
almost mocks his weakness. He is unsure and jittery throughout, memorably harangued
by a confrontational group of motley stage musicians in the opening scene; too easily
led astray; more than ever, one feels, undeserving of his last-minute reprieve.

(click to enlarge)

The focus, emotional and dramatic, is put squarely onto
Agathe, played serenely here by the terrific Iulia Maria Dan, and sung in a
voice that offers exciting hints of the dramatic through its velvety lyric surface—this
member of the Hamburg ensemble is definitely a name to watch.

The character seems better than the situation she finds
herself in, not least because Konwitschny, in a characteristic fourth
wall-breaking touch, reveals the Hermit (a resonant Tigran Martirossian) as a
suave audience member watching her, with a mixture of paternal concern and
infatuation, from the front row of the stalls.

The opera itself, in as much as
it exists here as a self-contained work, is shown as coming to a close before
the Hermit’s final intervention, at which point a puzzled stage manager tries to work
out what’s going on before all the cast and chorus come back onto the stage for
a celebratory glass of bubbly.

The primary feature of Gabriele Koerbl’s set is a elevator door,
stage right, the indicator lights above which hint at mysterious ascents and
descents, including, for the Wolf’s Glen, to the realm of Samiel. (S)he is represented
in that scene by a suave Otto Katzameier, but turns up as a slinky viola-playing
she-devil (Naomi Seiler) in Ännchen’s ‘Einst träumte meine sel’gen Base’—a
touch that was strangely reminiscent of the violin-playing ‘angel’ at the close
of Christoph Marthaler’s Luluhere
earlier in the year.

Katharina Konradi’s sparky, mischievous Ännchen was
excellent here as throughout, and the four Bridesmaid’s deserve a special
mention, too, each minutely characterised as they presented their song as a
nervous series of individual performances.

The Wolf's Glen scene is itself brilliantly realised, too, Samiel’s
voice resonating through speakers as Caspar manufactures the magic bullets above a television, with moral support from malfunctioning mechanical owl. Whether deliberately or not, the scene
also became reminiscent of Mime cooking up his broth for Siegfried, as
seen at least in many recent stagings, meaning that I heard forest murmurings in Weber’s
score that I’d not really noticed before. Malfunctioning, sinister technology is
present throughout, even in the interval, where the theatre's foyers
are filled with the continued eerie tick tock that brings the second act to a disquieting conclusion.
As a repertoire revival there were some rough edges musically here and there, but conductor Christof Prick paced the performance well. Burkhard Fritz seemed to be having a bit of an off day as Max, too, but his underpowered vocal performance was arguably of a piece with Konwitschny’s characterisation of the role—a characterisation that, along with its corollary in the elevation of Agathe, was central to the director’s compelling rethinking of the whole piece.

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About Me

I am freelance critic, writer and musicologist based in Berlin. I have held editorial posts at Gramophone and Opera, was opera critic of the Spectator and have worked as a critic for the Daily Telegraph and Financial Times. I was editor of 30-Second Opera (Ivy Press, 2015), now also available – when I checked last – in French, German and Spanish. My PhD (awarded from King's College London in early 2011) was a critical reassessment of Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal's 'Die Frau ohne Schatten'; further details of my academic work can be found under 'Publications and Papers'.
If you'd like to email me, I can be reached on hugojeshirley[at]gmail.com.

About this Blog

Fatal Conclusions is designed to serve as a modest outlet for various reviews (of varying levels of formality and punctuality) and ideas regarding what's going on in the Opera and Classical Music worlds--and, if I'm feeling adventurous, beyond. Thanks for popping by. I hope you enjoy reading and please feel free to leave comments.